Color rendition difference between SketchUp and Enscape

1st Official Post

    Hello,


    I am working on a project that requires a fair level of color accuracy. I am using SketchUp Pro 2017 and Enscape 2.5.1 with default settings.


    Please see sample color below. This is an existing building we are trying to match the wall colors to our new design.




    The following is a screenshot of the new concept as it looks in the SketchUp viewport. Notice the similarity (not exactly the same, but close) of the protruding facade bay with the sample image.



    The next image is the same view rendered with Enscape. Please notice how much lighter the gray/pale green color renders. It is more off white than the sample color.




    In general, I have notice that the Enscape colors tend to shift towards red, producing a brownish tint that in this particular case is not the effect we are looking for.


    The RGB values are the same on both SketchUp and Enscape, and I am not using any custom settings. All settings are default values. My monitors, HP Z24n are set to default settings as well.


    The date/time of the scene is set to June 21 at 2:00 PM, and the Enscape Color Temperature is set to 6600 K.


    Any ideas/suggestions (other than Photoshop) on how to match SKP color to Enscape rendering?


    Thanks!

    Always adjust your mats under lit conditions. Don't just try to match a color in a flat 2d environment. The image you're showing is just demonstrating how light works and how the settings of your material interact with it. In order for you to achieve an exact match, you would need to create the exact lighting conditions of photograph. Just eyeball it inside Enscape and call it a day.

    • Official Post

    Not that much I want to add to vjaramillo 's response, but yes, you would have to have the exact same lighting conditions plus the time of day has to match since the sun produces a different color (in real life and in Enscape), depending on the set time, weather conditions and so on.


    Further, comparing the SketchUp view-port output with Enscape would not make that much sense since SketchUp only makes use of a highly simplified lighting system, and there is no sun-light-color which affects the projects appearance. :) In that case, you could, just for experimentation, turn the Rendering Quality in the General tab to "Draft" and in the Atmosphere tab set the "Sun Brightness" to 0%, which should give you an output more closely resembling the output of SketchUp.

    Thank you both for the feedback. I appreciate you taking the time to respond.


    I would like to pose the question in a different way, if I may. I understand color theory and the physics involved in color reproduction, and I do not disagree with both your observations and recommendations.


    That said, as an architect who deals daily with clients of very different levels of sophistication and experience, I find with great frequency perceptual discrepancies between colors selected and specified from manufacturer's catalogs and specifications, and the same color rendition on a digital image or printed material.


    From a client's perspective the expectation is that a chosen color from a manufacturer resource should render or reproduce as close as possible to the sample. This is not in itself an unreasonable request.


    Technical explanations of lighting conditions and atmospheric effects on color rendition are usually met with the same reply, they do not care and just want their buildings to look like the colors and materials they approved. I understand that is not your problem, but it is mine and I am only looking for practical solutions.


    For example, if we compare the bottom two images, the SketchUp view and the Enscape rendering, please notice how similar the stone tile looks on both, and how colors both left and right of the protruding bay in the center look pretty close, yet the "beige" color of the center bay rendered "off white" in Enscape. So this tells me that on the same scene, and given the same lighting and atmospheric conditions, some colors render close to their intended look and others depart significantly. Even colors belonging to the same family.


    I am just trying to understand why this is so.


    My approach is to split the 2D color elevations for approvals, and construction coordination from the rendering material, but that does not stop people from wishing that color matching could be more easily accomplished in renderings as well.

    Good luck with that...Flat swatches and displayed color will vary from screen display, printed and rendered. You can spend hours color calibrating all your screens and printers, but you will not get an exact WYSIWYG output. Even when you send stuff to clients or show prints in their office. It's not a Enscape issue. It's a untrained eye issue. Get it as close as you can and then educate your clients on how light works in the real world. A paint swatch will look different compared to the paint applied to the building. Time of day, season...etc.

    ..I´ve had a hard experience trying to explain that to some clients. You will never have excact the same WYS color you bought at the hardwarestore on the wall back home when you paint it due to:

    • different lightconditions (colortemperature lamps, lightpower, weather conditions, season, night/day for outside windows)
    • impact from environment (colors from other walls inside or outside windows)
    • angle and reflexions (a flat horisontal surface is not same as vertical)
    • texture on surface
    • ++
    Quote from Epix 3D

    ..I´ve had a hard experience trying to explain that to some clients. You will never have excact the same WYS color you bought at the hardwarestore on the wall back home when you paint it due to:

    • different lightconditions (colortemperature lamps, lightpower, weather conditions, season, night/day for outside windows)
    • impact from environment (colors from other walls inside or outside windows)
    • angle and reflexions (a flat horisontal surface is not same as vertical)
    • texture on surface
    • ++

    A good summary. Let me add one: The exposure has also an impact, since the transfer from (high dynamic range) lighting unit of your scene to your screen is non-linear which leads to saturation changes across different light scales. TL;DR -> Accurate color reproduction can only be ensured in a comic-like render like the SketchUp viewport. Else, you will not get the albedo color when using the color picker on the output image.

    I appreciate all the valuable information you guys have offered. These will come in handy when explaining color variations/discrepancies to clients.


    Another positive point from this discussion is that I can use Enscape to "test" selected colors under various atmospheric and lighting conditions. This will help clients better understand color and material choices and I am sure it will promote some lively discussions.